The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - Can Calgary Conservatives take back City Hall？ (ft. Sonya Sharp)

00:00:00.000 Hello everyone, Wyatt Claypool here.

00:00:03.080 Although on the show I tend to talk mostly about federal politics and a little bit about

00:00:08.480 provincial politics, I feel like more people really need to take municipal politics seriously.

00:00:14.780 And in my province of Alberta, we are having municipal elections this October, and being

00:00:20.400 somebody who lives in the city of Calgary, I am going to be putting a lot of focus on

00:00:25.560 the Calgary mayoral race, because it's been now several elections in a row where we have

00:00:31.560 not been able to elect a conservative in a conservative city.

00:00:36.360 And oftentimes it's because a lot of people who run, kind of run softly conservative, somewhat

00:00:42.680 conservative, they run on trying to make spending a little bit more efficient, but they don't

00:00:47.640 actually end up promising anything major.

00:00:49.720 So when I was looking around the slate of people who were putting their names forward, I was

00:00:54.760 seeing a lot of the same names popping up, people who came a distant third place, people

00:00:59.760 who maybe came second, but have really taken a left turn since the last election.

00:01:04.700 And then I was happy to see Sonia Sharp announce that she was running for mayor, and goodness

00:01:09.920 actually put some conservative things on her website.

00:01:13.300 And so that is why today my special guest is the current councillor for Ward 1 in Calgary,

00:01:19.880 who is now running for mayor, Sonia Sharp.

00:01:22.360 Thanks for coming on the show, Sonia.

00:01:25.580 Thank you for having me.

00:01:27.900 Absolutely.

00:01:29.240 I'll just outright say that actually, because this is such a big race, that this whole interview,

00:01:35.200 even though I'm a usually very cool person, has made me more nervous than usual, because

00:01:39.380 I can feel how actually serious this whole situation has become.

00:01:44.240 There are like five or six people running for mayor right now, and truly reading people's

00:01:51.300 websites, I feel like I'm kind of going crazy.

00:01:53.960 It doesn't matter if I know somebody is very much on the left or someone's more in the center

00:01:58.420 on the center right.

00:01:59.480 They all started sounding the same.

00:02:01.480 So I guess maybe it'd be good for you to give us your background on, you know, why you ended

00:02:06.740 up deciding to go for council in the first place and back in 2021, and then what made

00:02:12.380 you make the leap to running for mayor this time?

00:02:15.400 Okay.

00:02:15.940 So, yeah, I have a bit of a story.

00:02:18.040 I can say it's kind of a unique story.

00:02:19.680 So I never intended to work for the city as long as I did.

00:02:22.980 I grew up in an entrepreneurial family.

00:02:25.060 My parents were immigrants to Canada, started their own business, and you kind of just work

00:02:28.780 to live.

00:02:30.260 And I was part of the family business for many years, but I went to school to be a teacher

00:02:35.460 at the University of Lethbridge.

00:02:37.180 And my life took a bit of a turning point.

00:02:39.320 My mom became ill, so my dad asked me to come back and run the family business, which was

00:02:43.280 the construction business, and I did.

00:02:45.080 So I didn't pursue my degree in education, but I did go to SAIT to get a diploma in construction

00:02:52.080 so that I had some credibility on the job site.

00:02:55.180 And I did that for a really long time.

00:02:57.060 And I also now husband back in the day, boyfriend, we had service-based industries.

00:03:02.440 So I've had about 16 years of business experience on top of the 20 years I would call institutional

00:03:08.940 knowledge of working at the city.

00:03:10.560 And during my tenure at the city, the city was good to me.

00:03:13.620 I started off as a lifeguard, then I went to planning and development.

00:03:16.780 I worked the front counter all the way up to the city manager's office until I decided

00:03:20.960 to run for council.

00:03:22.580 And I ran because I felt like I did as much change as I could inside.

00:03:27.440 And I had a special, I would call it a special role at the city at the very end.

00:03:32.360 I was a leader of the business and economy team.

00:03:35.160 We were the ones that navigated the COVID-19 pandemic for the business community.

00:03:39.320 We are the reason that patios end up being extended on sidewalks and roads so businesses

00:03:43.120 could operate.

00:03:44.000 And we really, we were like trailblazers in leading business in not just Alberta, but

00:03:50.500 in Canada.

00:03:51.240 So in 2021, I decided that I wanted to be on the other side.

00:03:56.620 So I quit my job after 20 years at the city.

00:04:00.880 I had already quit business at the prior to that.

00:04:03.740 And I ran for council.

00:04:05.700 I worked really hard to win and became the board one councillor.

00:04:11.140 And I'm a sitting board one councillor now.

00:04:13.360 And it was about last year around Stampede.

00:04:17.080 After the big water main break that happened in Calgary, I really decided that it was time

00:04:23.260 for me to run for mayor.

00:04:23.920 And I just felt like currently the way council was operating and the current leadership wasn't

00:04:30.220 the leadership Calgarians are asking for.

00:04:33.000 So technically, I've also quit my job again.

00:04:37.140 I'm all in.

00:04:37.880 I have formally declared I'm running for mayor.

00:04:41.080 I am not running for ward one.

00:04:43.080 So I will be on the ballot for sure.

00:04:45.920 And I took this risk to, you know, give it my all to represent Calgarians and, you know,

00:04:53.100 really think and focus on an affordable, safe city for everybody and really have people trust

00:04:59.940 City Hall again.

00:05:00.860 And that's why I'm here.

00:05:02.640 There's been a lot of things happen this last almost four years, and Calgarians are not 0.99

00:05:08.520 happy and they want change.

00:05:10.900 And I'm going to lead a team of people to make that happen.

00:05:14.640 My pet peeve when it comes to politics, especially when it comes to fiscal issues, is when people

00:05:21.160 run on the idea, I'm going to make government more efficient.

00:05:25.160 And then they don't actually say anything past that.

00:05:27.280 Literally every candidate always says that.

00:05:29.500 And then the reason why I was all in for you as for mayor is because you actually on your

00:05:36.040 website and nobody else for some reason will do it, will actually commit to cutting wasteful

00:05:41.580 spending.

00:05:42.120 Because I think one of the it was I know it's a microcosm of the issue, but I think a lot

00:05:46.660 of people ended up getting very frustrated when they saw Calgary Economic Development and

00:05:51.800 Tourism Calgary spend over $3 million just changing the slogan and the logo of the city

00:06:00.620 of Calgary.

00:06:01.360 Maybe it needed an update.

00:06:02.820 That's neither here nor there.

00:06:04.480 But when we for some reason cannot have restraint for an issue that doesn't actually require

00:06:10.260 much of a material change other than changing signage, and we throw $3 million away on consulting

00:06:15.760 fees, unless someone's committing to cutting that, I can't really back them.

00:06:19.700 And again, I look around with so many people supposedly saying that they're in favor of

00:06:23.940 fiscal responsibility, won't even commit to cutting a single dollar of wasteful spending.

00:06:29.420 So I practice what I preach.

00:06:32.460 I also, I work for it.

00:06:35.440 You can say you're going to freeze taxes.

00:06:37.760 You can say you're going to lower taxes.

00:06:40.740 I, myself, with other incumbents running on Communities First, have brought motions forward

00:06:44.960 the last budget, like how many budget cycles we've been in three, and we found 170 million

00:06:50.280 efficiencies.

00:06:51.040 That's not even talking about signage.

00:06:52.740 That's talking about wasteful spending.

00:06:55.240 And I would say, like, you can say I'm running an efficient, effective city.

00:06:59.780 That's a headline.

00:07:00.860 But what does that mean?

00:07:01.860 It means keeping taxes affordable.

00:07:03.260 It means that you're still delivering the services that Calgarians need every day, and

00:07:07.980 you can find efficiencies that wouldn't impact them.

00:07:10.900 My advantage of having 20 years inside and now the four years as a politician, I know

00:07:16.280 where all of this is.

00:07:17.660 And I will challenge anyone running next to me on it.

00:07:22.120 I mean, the current mayor and I have this, we've had debate.

00:07:25.020 So, you know, does she know where it is?

00:07:26.600 Of course she does.

00:07:27.680 But that wasn't part of why she ran or what she stands for now.

00:07:31.420 But it's really looking at a different way of budgeting and providing oversight to city

00:07:38.280 administration.

00:07:39.660 And that can be done because it's been done before.

00:07:42.640 So it's getting in there and giving it good governance, having those eight votes.

00:07:47.500 Everyone knows it takes eight to get anything done.

00:07:50.160 But, you know, when you're sitting there priding yourself saying that you're going to freeze

00:07:53.560 taxes, okay, so then how are you going to pay for anything?

00:07:55.800 Because you still have to pay for stuff.

00:07:57.180 You still have to run a city.

00:07:58.520 But you can cut taxes and you can cut spending and people will notice it on their, like, bottom

00:08:06.220 line.

00:08:06.920 But their services should never be affected.

00:08:09.280 And so for me, I have prided myself in saying, yeah, I can find it.

00:08:13.420 I can do it because I have brought motions forward.

00:08:17.200 I last budget, it was 11 and they all failed.

00:08:20.280 And it's okay because I will keep going until I know that we can get the eight people that

00:08:25.560 are sensible that will support it to, you know, deliver what Calgarians are asking for.

00:08:31.120 Well, it's the thing we see in every election cycle is everyone wants to, you know, like,

00:08:35.160 you know, be more efficient with our spending.

00:08:37.160 And then they get into government.

00:08:38.360 People start pointing out to them inefficiencies.

00:08:41.120 You know, the Canadian Taxpayer Federation and other taxpayer activist groups come out and

00:08:45.860 they find the wasteful spending for the government officials.

00:08:48.820 And then they suddenly can't find a good reason to cut the stuff.

00:08:52.420 And again, yeah, saying that you're going to freeze taxes, but not willing to cut any

00:08:56.980 wasteful spending means that the budget is naturally going to increase just from planned

00:09:03.020 increases.

00:09:04.100 That's right.

00:09:05.260 Growth in population.

00:09:06.680 And so, and also, I have to be honest, if you're saying that, that means you don't actually

00:09:11.000 understand the budgeting system.

00:09:12.500 That's a red flag.

00:09:13.920 Just say, and there's people that campaigned on that last time.

00:09:17.080 It didn't work out for them.

00:09:17.940 You cannot just freeze taxes.

00:09:20.000 You can cut spending, you can cut taxes, or you can increase taxes.

00:09:23.700 If you just say, I'm going to freeze them, you're freezing them then now at the 8% and

00:09:28.460 then the escalation of what's been done.

00:09:30.800 Like, and then how do you prioritize anything, you know, that needs to be done?

00:09:35.800 We've, we've put pledges out for, you know, more police officers for the next two years.

00:09:40.820 That's a, you have to, you have to look for trade-offs.

00:09:43.520 So if you're going to fund more police officers, that's going to be a bunch of operational

00:09:48.860 money.

00:09:49.280 So where are you going to find that inside?

00:09:51.880 Do you make sure that operational money that's being spent on things no one notices on and

00:09:56.180 no one cares about, but when we need those police officers, where's the trade-off?

00:10:00.700 And being a civic politician, it's not like government of Alberta and government of Canada.

00:10:06.500 The leader makes decisions regardless if you like it.

00:10:08.860 And what I love about civic politics is how close it is to the people.

00:10:13.100 And that's also why I'm running.

00:10:14.360 I, I like rolling out my sleeves and getting work done.

00:10:17.180 So when someone challenges me and says, you're never going to find this, watch us find that.

00:10:24.280 Watch me find this, watch us do this.

00:10:26.320 And it is, it's just a willingness and it's not saying you're getting in there and you're

00:10:31.000 firing a bunch of people either.

00:10:32.720 There are, there is every good corporation knows and CEO knows there's room to find money.

00:10:38.320 There's room for movement.

00:10:39.500 When you've seen the surpluses we've seen along the way, where is that money gone?

00:10:43.900 And we might not see those surpluses moving forward.

00:10:46.760 So you have to be smart and you need to work with good people.

00:10:50.480 And I like going back to like the team of candidates on communities first.

00:10:55.080 It's such a strong team and we all know it needs to be done.

00:10:58.660 We, we work on things together.

00:11:00.480 We have seven principles.

00:11:01.800 We've committed to repealing brand for rezoning.

00:11:03.920 We all bring different, like I would say aspects to politics that like from each other, some

00:11:11.440 of us have different experiences, but the biggest thing that we also have in common is we're

00:11:16.140 just getting into work.

00:11:17.160 It doesn't matter what we believe in.

00:11:19.080 It's just, let's deliver what Calgarians are asking.

00:11:22.380 And it's going to be a lot of work.

00:11:23.900 And I think all of them work for it.

00:11:25.660 And then in the description of this video below, as well as pinned to the top comments, I will

00:11:29.600 be leaving for any of you in Calgary, links to Sonia's website, if you want a lawn sign

00:11:34.680 as well as the community's first website.

00:11:37.060 But I want to shift over to public safety in just a second here.

00:11:40.780 But I want to just do make a quick last point on taxes as well.

00:11:44.960 One, it's kind of funny that we're having a bunch of people also pledge to hiring police

00:11:49.160 officers when some of the people running for mayor in the race voted to defund the police.

00:11:53.580 Yes, they did vote to defund.

00:11:55.040 And I can already hear people saying, no, they didn't vote to defund it because other

00:11:59.500 people on council didn't vote to defund the police.

00:12:01.700 So it kind of gives lie to the idea that the people who did do it didn't actually do

00:12:06.120 it.

00:12:06.500 And, you know, the vote meant something else.

00:12:08.480 But when it comes to tax rates as well, there is a difference between property tax rates

00:12:13.280 and the actual assessed value of your property.

00:12:17.600 Not only has the current council, who is being led by a mayor who pledged to freeze taxes,

00:12:22.160 raised rates, but they've also aggressively reevaluated the values of people's homes in

00:12:28.180 order to also get more out of it, even if their rates stayed the same.

00:12:32.680 The politicians are smart.

00:12:33.940 They know that housing prices have been skyrocketing well ahead of every single other good in the

00:12:40.540 society.

00:12:41.040 So even if they say, I'm going to freeze taxes and not touch them, again, if you're

00:12:45.460 not cutting wasteful spending, and you're not trying to potentially move towards actually

00:12:50.640 cutting the rate, you will still be paying more taxes anyways, because they'll say your

00:12:54.360 house is no longer just $800,000.

00:12:56.100 It is $875,000 this year.

00:12:58.740 But going into public safety, oh, sorry.

00:13:02.900 I was going to say, you bring such a great point, and I think people running can learn

00:13:06.760 from you.

00:13:08.800 Hopefully, and usually I always get like, I get very aggressively ignored.

00:13:14.280 With public safety, I guess we can move on to that issue, because as, and this is the

00:13:19.820 thing, I'm almost agnostic when it comes to the issue of the green line.

00:13:23.620 The problem whenever I hear about the issue is that the current council, the current mayor's

00:13:29.320 office does not actually care enough about public safety, that building a new train line

00:13:33.800 down into South Calgary is basically just bringing a system to move crime around the

00:13:39.840 city more efficiently.

00:13:41.360 Without actually putting police officers on the transit system itself, without actually

00:13:46.960 hiring more police officers and having the budget available to do it, you can't actually

00:13:51.600 put forward something like the green line, you can't actually do a lot of what you're

00:13:55.100 going to say without increasing the per capita amount of police officers on the streets.

00:14:02.420 Yeah, so I've lived by a motto for a long time, and it was also when I was in administration,

00:14:07.280 if you don't have a safe city, it is hard to deliver a lot of other things.

00:14:11.160 And so one of our pillars and part of my platform is public safety and fundamental, sorry,

00:14:16.980 it's supposed to be its fundamental responsibility of ours, so police, fire, bylaw, police, peace

00:14:22.520 officers, transit safety.

00:14:24.680 And we need further investments, not just in the safety of our transit, but we also need

00:14:29.240 to talk about the social disorder.

00:14:30.940 Nobody wants to talk about it.

00:14:32.480 I'm comfortable talking about it.

00:14:34.480 And we have seen a city change.

00:14:36.380 I was born and raised here over the years.

00:14:38.220 I've worked downtown for a really long time, saw how things have shifted on Stephen Avenue

00:14:42.280 and what's been going on.

00:14:43.840 And we really need to take a compassionate approach to dealing with a social disorder

00:14:48.340 in Calgary.

00:14:49.340 That means we have to make sure we are supporting our provincial counterparts in what sort of

00:14:55.300 mechanisms they can put in place to support change if we're looking for it.

00:15:00.680 The other big thing is pledging the amount of police officers over the next two years gives

00:15:05.180 us time to budget and gives us time to look at where we can find that money and working

00:15:09.400 close with the commission.

00:15:10.300 The commission obviously reports to council.

00:15:13.760 The chief does not.

00:15:14.780 They report to commission and building that relationship, having a good commission.

00:15:18.960 There are great members of commission on there now.

00:15:20.900 They get it.

00:15:22.020 And the current police chief has made some incredible moves on what she believes needs

00:15:27.920 to be done.

00:15:28.500 So I think we are really starting to move things forward in that having that difficult conversation

00:15:34.340 about social disorder.

00:15:35.680 And it's OK to talk about it.

00:15:37.800 And it's OK to find mechanisms to support people because they're a human being.

00:15:42.260 And we need to think about how we do this strategically so that every one of those folks that walk downtown

00:15:49.180 feel safe.

00:15:50.080 And even the folks that decide they know that they're OK living downtown, they're OK not being housed.

00:15:55.620 They need to feel safe.

00:15:57.400 Everyone deserves a safe city regardless.

00:16:00.640 And so for me, I've been a big proponent of safety.

00:16:04.580 I want this to be the safest city in Canada.

00:16:07.260 And that is going to be my goal.

00:16:09.160 And then things start to fall in place.

00:16:10.700 I really do believe that.

00:16:12.120 You talk about affordability.

00:16:13.720 Businesses don't have to spend more money on barricading their windows, cleaning up sidewalks,

00:16:19.540 added security.

00:16:20.380 Because guess who pays for that?

00:16:21.860 You do.

00:16:22.440 The consumer.

00:16:23.700 Then you talk about infrastructure.

00:16:25.420 Right.

00:16:25.500 You think about, you know, an ice cream shop now has to add an extra 25, 50 cents to an ice cream

00:16:30.520 because they need security or they need to put bars on windows.

00:16:34.060 You know, I talk to Home Depots around the city.

00:16:36.220 Which ones are more affected by issues along the train line and which ones aren't?

00:16:41.060 We need to talk about putting uniforms on sea trains.

00:16:44.480 And, you know, like you don't get these opportunities a lot to have these conversations like you and

00:16:49.260 I are having now.

00:16:50.180 But I mean, obviously, I have I'm very passionate about this work and I'm very passionate about

00:16:55.120 being the safest city.

00:16:56.360 You should pride yourself on a city that's clean and safe.

00:16:59.100 And that is as a mayor.

00:17:00.940 I want I want people to be envious of that.

00:17:03.580 And then you work on a lot of other things.

00:17:06.660 And that's why I built a team, because you think about seven priorities that we want to

00:17:11.400 deliver.

00:17:11.740 You think about how many people are running.

00:17:13.500 We have 10 right now.

00:17:15.140 There are opportunities to give them a pillar or a mandate and say, hey, go ahead and work

00:17:21.920 on this and let's deliver this together.

00:17:23.960 Your power in numbers.

00:17:25.880 And it would be it's really incredible.

00:17:27.960 All the door knocking that I've been doing in different wards, the common things of

00:17:32.720 issues are safety and affordability.

00:17:34.980 Infrastructure comes up, obviously, with like our roads and our pipes.

00:17:37.900 But safety has been one of those things that I don't think I leave a community and say,

00:17:42.420 oh, I didn't hear about safety tonight.

00:17:44.280 I hear about it all the time.

00:17:45.300 And the three major areas of crime across Canada that have been spiking over time, and that's

00:17:51.280 because of really bad bail reforms that have been made on the federal level.

00:17:55.240 But the three major areas are violent crime, retail theft and drug crime.

00:18:00.400 I worked at a liquor store along the C train line.

00:18:03.740 And the one thing that was always frustrating was not the police's fault.

00:18:06.780 It's just the way that counsel.

00:18:09.020 It's the way the mayor's office is organizing the police.

00:18:11.600 And when you call the police after you get robbed, they come to your store first.

00:18:16.480 They get the description of a guy who already jumped on the C train and left.

00:18:20.020 And so even putting police officers on the C train would probably slash retail theft right

00:18:25.180 away.

00:18:25.840 And to make a point that you were kind of making is that the thing is that crime, in fact,

00:18:31.760 drives poverty.

00:18:33.100 It's not like many people try and frame it.

00:18:35.420 If poverty does not drive crime, crime is what causes an area to become impoverished.

00:18:40.640 Because businesses don't set up, growth slows down, and the jobs go away.

00:18:45.080 And it makes it more difficult for people to find a job in their own area without having

00:18:48.800 to drive to the other end of the city.

00:18:51.260 Wasn't it also the mayor's office who criticized Premier Smith for putting sheriffs on the C train

00:18:57.800 line at one point?

00:18:58.780 Like, the premier does the mayor's job for her. 0.98

00:19:02.240 And then Gondek comes out to criticize her that it, like, you know, looks bad to have sheriffs

00:19:06.660 in the city doing the job that the mayor doesn't want done.

00:19:11.600 The biggest thing what I will say is moving forward for, you know, myself is intergovernment

00:19:17.180 relations are super critical.

00:19:19.320 So for this example is, you know, you're talking about police sheriffs, which, you know, come

00:19:23.020 from the province of Alberta.

00:19:24.700 Having a good relationship with that leader is critical.

00:19:27.780 Not fighting on Twitter, not cutting each other down in a Herald article, collaboration with

00:19:33.520 other orders of government are going to drive the things we need to deliver.

00:19:37.500 We serve the same people, you know.

00:19:39.780 And so if we're making bold moves that involves the province, they're going to want to know

00:19:44.720 what's your plan?

00:19:45.680 How are you going to execute it?

00:19:47.180 And where can we support you?

00:19:49.040 And that's what I'm looking for as I, you know, go through all this and, you know, hopefully

00:19:54.280 become the mayor.

00:19:55.260 The other piece to this is they're going to look at us and say, we will support you.

00:20:00.180 But what have you done?

00:20:01.820 And so going back to the province and saying, well, we've been able to fund, you know, up

00:20:06.260 to 250 new police officers.

00:20:08.860 We found money.

00:20:09.600 Now we know we know we need this from, you know, the province of Alberta.

00:20:14.100 Or do we need to go to the federal government?

00:20:15.520 We, of course, need to advocate for the way the justice system works.

00:20:21.600 It's like a revolving door.

00:20:23.300 And so we're not giving our officers the tools they need to put bad guys in the jail, like

00:20:28.540 put bad guys away.

00:20:30.000 And if you victimize somebody, I'm sorry, you should go to prison.

00:20:33.740 Like, I'm going to say it.

00:20:35.480 Like, I know a lot of people probably will criticize, like, some of the way I'm talking.

00:20:38.840 But I am sorry, but things need to change.

00:20:41.100 You cannot live in a city that you don't feel safe.

00:20:43.240 I have a family.

00:20:44.240 I have teenagers.

00:20:46.640 I want them to be able to, you know, do the things I did as a teenager in Calgary and,

00:20:51.980 you know, take the train.

00:20:52.980 I took the train when I was younger from, you know, where I lived to, you know, downtown

00:20:57.580 and do things with my friends and come back home late at night.

00:21:00.020 It was okay.

00:21:00.640 We didn't even have cell phones.

00:21:01.780 Yes, I'm that old.

00:21:02.740 We did not have cell phones.

00:21:04.620 You know, you had a quarter in your pocket.

00:21:06.380 Call your parents if you needed something.

00:21:08.260 But the thing is, is that you really need to, you know, be bold, make decisions and know

00:21:14.160 you're doing it for the greater good of the city.

00:21:16.720 And I've had those conversations with the premier and said, you know, I'm going to look for your

00:21:20.940 support on some things.

00:21:22.440 And I hope you'll be there.

00:21:24.840 And, you know, when the time comes, we'll see.

00:21:28.360 And to go to another thing that you're talking about, in the sense that you mentioned advocating

00:21:35.480 for laws to be changed on the federal level when it comes to things like bail reform, repealing

00:21:40.760 Bill C-75.

00:21:41.980 There's also Bill 5, Bill C-5.

00:21:44.620 It wasn't the one that was just passed about major projects.

00:21:47.140 It was a previous version, which actually lowered the penalties for people who are caught

00:21:52.480 carrying illegal handguns.

00:21:54.160 Not like the ones on the ban list that the liberal government on federal level come up with.

00:21:58.940 These are just literally smuggled in guns that gang members will get lower sentences for being

00:22:03.680 caught with them.

00:22:04.680 That's great for a city official to be doing, advocating for those changes to be made.

00:22:09.220 With the current administration, you will get them trying to wade into the politics of another

00:22:14.660 province on, like, a social issue, or they won't show up to a menorah lighting because I guess

00:22:20.260 that's not, like, politically correct to do at the moment.

00:22:23.260 It's, that's the funny thing.

00:22:25.600 And they can't fill potholes.

00:22:28.200 And, like, that's always the thing that you always think of whenever you see that the city

00:22:31.800 spent $3 million, not even changing the signage, like you said, just doing, just changing the

00:22:37.280 slogan of the city costs $3 million.

00:22:39.940 And it's like, how many police officers can you hire for all those consulting fees?

00:22:45.240 How many potholes could you fill?

00:22:47.580 Well, you probably have the actual stat off the top of your head.

00:22:52.900 But what if...

00:22:53.420 I don't know off the top of my head.

00:22:55.680 This one you may know.

00:22:57.080 It will be, how much of Calgary's roads are considered good quality?

00:23:01.920 I believe it was somewhere in the 20s.

00:23:05.220 20?

00:23:05.540 I mean, did you say 20s?

00:23:07.540 I think it was like 28% of Calgary's roads are considered good quality.

00:23:12.400 There was something about that.

00:23:13.660 It was like 30.

00:23:14.260 It was, I thought it was in the 30s.

00:23:15.520 But, I mean, you can't quote me on that one because that one I wasn't prepared for.

00:23:18.420 So, I mean, I usually keep a knowledge of numbers in my head.

00:23:20.820 But that one I didn't, I wasn't ready for.

00:23:22.820 Why?

00:23:23.020 The fact that we may be cobbling around whether 20% or 30% of the roads are drivable.

00:23:29.320 Let's just say it's under 50 and that is not a good stat.

00:23:32.460 Okay?

00:23:32.740 But anything, it should be better than 50.

00:23:35.240 Anything that you want to deliver should be better than 50%.

00:23:37.740 It's a fail.

00:23:39.080 Under 50.

00:23:40.020 Let's just be clear.

00:23:41.400 Right?

00:23:41.680 And so what you're really talking about is getting back to the basics.

00:23:44.720 And, you know, I think what's important is, you know, people talk about city politics

00:23:51.040 should be boring.

00:23:51.760 Yeah, it should be boring.

00:23:53.240 Your job is to make sure potholes are filled, garbage is picked up, you're, you know, coming

00:23:58.540 up with policy for infrastructure and, you know, planning and all, you know, all of that.

00:24:03.900 I think, you know, it's really important to listen, not lecture with your constituents

00:24:08.700 and really just park the ideology.

00:24:12.160 I'm running in this seat and I'm here to serve every single person, every human, whatever

00:24:19.140 flag you fly under, whatever belief you may have.

00:24:23.300 I am just here to be an elected official and a mayor to serve you.

00:24:27.320 That is called public service.

00:24:29.520 And that's why I do believe a lot of elected officials that in this term are quitting.

00:24:33.400 It's an unheard of job.

00:24:35.140 It's unheard of that people just after one term leaving.

00:24:37.860 This is public service.

00:24:39.240 I couldn't have imagined while I was working in administration and someone coming to the

00:24:44.540 counter when I was doing permits and saying, I'm sorry, I can't serve you because we don't

00:24:49.140 believe in the same thing.

00:24:50.160 That doesn't, that doesn't happen.

00:24:51.680 Or when I was a lifeguard and jumping in the water to save a child because, you know, we

00:24:57.000 weren't the same.

00:24:57.780 That is unheard of.

00:24:59.100 You're a public servant and that is why you chose to run and that is why I choose to serve

00:25:03.100 and that is why I'm here.

00:25:04.580 And so I park my ideology.

00:25:06.520 I park my personal beliefs.

00:25:08.540 Those are saved for dinner table conversations with my family and, you know, and things like

00:25:14.420 that.

00:25:14.620 Like, this is not what the horseshoe is all about and it shouldn't be and that needs

00:25:18.440 to change.

00:25:19.220 And that is the big change we're hearing at the doors.

00:25:21.200 I, you know, I pride myself on being raised by really good parents and we have a big family

00:25:27.180 and I think that a lot of my values and instilled in me come from my mom and dad who came here

00:25:33.240 as immigrants and knew the struggles they had in Europe, but then came to Canada and

00:25:37.180 had those struggles and wanted a good life for their children.

00:25:40.520 And I see that.

00:25:41.800 I saw that every day.

00:25:42.960 And I, you know, I would say my parents work really hard to support us.

00:25:47.280 And I know that I work really hard with, you know, to support my family and my children.

00:25:52.120 And I think that's important.

00:25:54.080 And I resonate with people when they tell me, you know, I'm a child of immigrants too.

00:25:59.540 And like, we talk about certain things and how our families and it's just about being

00:26:02.980 a public servant and serving basic quality life things like clean water, snow clearing,

00:26:09.360 garbage pickup, safety, you know, things like that.

00:26:13.620 If people don't want to go to celebrations because they're not a belief of a certain religion,

00:26:18.320 that's on them.

00:26:19.680 You know, that's not, you are here as elected official to serve and you're serving everybody.

00:26:25.900 If somebody, if there's a difference between someone personally attacking you and all that,

00:26:29.500 that's different.

00:26:30.040 You know what I mean?

00:26:30.440 Like we have to be very careful with that because politics has changed.

00:26:33.840 But at the end of the day, I should be able to walk down the street with my family,

00:26:37.900 my friends and people to walk by and just say, you know, thanks for serving.

00:26:42.220 We not always get along or we not always believe or agree with the votes that,

00:26:47.080 you know, an elected official might have or give, and that's okay.

00:26:51.320 But defend your why and just be a human being next to them.

00:26:55.240 Because that's what this is all about.

00:26:57.300 For a final question, it may be a long one.

00:27:00.400 And actually, this is probably one I should have probably front loaded a little bit,

00:27:03.420 but whatever.

00:27:05.140 This is the quality of show people expect from me, just random stuff.

00:27:08.800 Okay, I love the big topics being brought.

00:27:10.520 Another slap.

00:27:10.960 So the, I was going to ask, on the issue of blanket rezoning, naturally, I don't think anyone

00:27:18.800 in my audience would support blanket rezoning.

00:27:21.020 Obviously, certain areas of the city may need some densification, certain others, really just

00:27:25.900 let each community figure out what it wants to be.

00:27:28.860 But how was it that it still was able to get eight votes in order to pass the blanket rezoning

00:27:37.700 measures, like, was there just legitimately just a disconnect, some, like, ideological

00:27:43.160 disconnect between the eight counselors who voted for that and those who were, like, and

00:27:49.980 the crowd of people that showed up?

00:27:51.960 Because it was in the stats.

00:27:53.740 It wasn't just, you know, it wasn't abstract.

00:27:56.820 You could literally see in the stats of who chose to speak against blanket rezoning that

00:28:01.700 it was going to be a large portion of the city.

00:28:03.860 Is that possibly why so many people are not going to be running for re-election?

00:28:08.760 And also, it's like, how did they end up kind of justifying that this was a good decision

00:28:13.540 to make after so many people had said that, you know, they weren't even maybe fully opposed

00:28:18.240 to any rezoning, but just not this way?

00:28:22.040 Yeah, so that's a loaded question you just gave me.

00:28:25.700 But what I'll say is, there was a couple things about the rezoning vote that had occurred.

00:28:33.900 First of all, when it occurred the very first time that it failed, there was a reconsideration

00:28:38.180 on the whole housing strategy.

00:28:39.860 Many of us believed in the housing strategy, believed in some of those principles, and did

00:28:43.660 not believe that blanket rezoning should be an omnibus approval through the strategy.

00:28:47.840 So we got it pulled out, re-voted, all of that.

00:28:51.380 So fast forward to the public hearing, where we had almost 800 people show up, and over

00:28:57.900 70% opposed it.

00:29:01.480 We had surveys out, opposed.

00:29:05.080 And I believe that not only did the federal money dangling in front of everybody give them

00:29:12.780 no reason to want to vote for it, but they just didn't care.

00:29:18.260 I just felt like, what a waste of a public hearing.

00:29:20.640 The vote was already decided by those members.

00:29:24.040 It was really sad.

00:29:26.340 I remember sitting there, and I listened to every single person speak.

00:29:31.160 I even had people come to me later and said, you know, you turned over and looked me in

00:29:34.940 the eyes.

00:29:35.380 And I said, yeah, it's my job, is there to listen.

00:29:38.000 The thing about blanket rezoning is it's not working, and they don't want to admit it.

00:29:42.300 One in five development permits now are being appealed.

00:29:44.840 You remove people out of the process.

00:29:46.420 They found a different avenue to appeal it.

00:29:49.100 And that's their right, and they will continue to do it.

00:29:52.020 Businesses now are, construction businesses are bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.

00:29:56.940 They're being held up in permits.

00:29:58.720 You know, developers can see that this is not really probably the best idea.

00:30:02.700 You can turn around and say, I told you so.

00:30:04.820 But the solution here is we've committed to repealing it, reinstating what was, so people

00:30:09.100 can speak to those permits or respectable bond uses in their community and reform the planning

00:30:13.500 department.

00:30:14.600 So, you know, it was, it's kind of, you know, it's funny and not funny at the same time,

00:30:19.300 because it's a lot of, it was a lot of work, not only for council, but administration.

00:30:23.540 And now I know everyone's like, well, you're going to go in and repeal it.

00:30:25.880 Well, you'll have to repeal it based on how you can repeal it, based on the day of, not

00:30:29.600 maybe grandfathered.

00:30:30.900 But when I brought a motion forward in 2023 to stop the rezoning, and it didn't even make

00:30:37.620 council floor, it failed at a committee.

00:30:41.460 It's, that was, you can tell it was, they already knew how they were voting.

00:30:45.500 Then Councillor McLean brings a plebiscite, again, fails.

00:30:49.740 You know how they're re-voting, on voting.

00:30:51.980 So they're like, oh, we just, we need to hear the public opinion.

00:30:54.320 The public opinion is they don't want it.

00:30:56.120 So just, why waste everyone's time?

00:30:58.140 So they did.

00:30:59.420 And it's really sad.

00:31:00.960 And those of them are, they're not running.

00:31:02.960 That's one thing.

00:31:03.820 Those of them that are running, and those of candidates that are running that weren't

00:31:08.400 in council, it is a, it is an election issue.

00:31:12.240 So, you know, and Communities First has committed, I committed to repealing it.

00:31:16.980 We have eight votes.

00:31:18.140 We will win, and it'll be gone, and it'll be reformed the way it needs to be done, and

00:31:22.300 proper planning process, and putting mechanisms in where you can cut red tape internally, and

00:31:27.860 not cut the people out.

00:31:29.120 So they clearly said, hey, Calgarians, you're the problem.

00:31:33.160 So we're going to remove the public hearing portion of it.

00:31:36.280 The citizens that elect you are never the problem.

00:31:39.660 That's how I'll leave it.

00:31:41.140 And just as a closing comment from myself, too, I always found the whole thing kind of

00:31:45.620 dishonest.

00:31:46.200 You have people who advocate for the blank rezoning, saying, oh, it's going to make housing 0.93

00:31:49.600 cheaper.

00:31:50.460 Not really.

00:31:51.580 What the city is doing is it doesn't want to speed up the normal approval process.

00:31:55.500 So it effectively is attempting to bribe developers saying, we're still, it's still going to be

00:31:59.980 very difficult to get approval to build something.

00:32:02.000 But at least you get to build a triplex on a single lot rather than just a single family

00:32:06.480 detached house.

00:32:07.420 But as the home buyer, you're not getting a cheaper house.

00:32:11.780 You're getting less house for way more per square foot.

00:32:15.860 So and the thing is, when you're seeing some of these properties pop up, which is some

00:32:19.240 of them are great starter homes for like, you know, like a single individual or a couple.

00:32:23.860 But when it's only 500 square feet, and that's becoming more and more housing in different

00:32:28.520 communities, you're going to have a really bad demographic problem in the future. 0.70

00:32:32.700 But not to go into that, but you're in.

00:32:35.020 But the fundamental thing is that the city is basically trying to say that we have made

00:32:38.840 housing cheaper by giving you less house for less money.

00:32:42.020 But the square footage is actually going up in price.

00:32:44.800 But but thanks for coming on to the show, Sonia.

00:32:47.100 Is there anything?

00:32:48.460 Yeah, of course.

00:32:49.180 Is there anything that you want to plug on the way out of this?

00:32:51.980 Yeah, I would actually.

00:32:53.740 I would just implore everybody to just, you know, of course, October 20th is election.

00:32:58.580 Get out to vote.

00:32:59.220 Early polls start October 6th.

00:33:01.060 Really get to know your candidates.

00:33:02.880 It's a really big election.

00:33:04.220 Please get to know me more and more as the weeks come near to those dates and get to know

00:33:09.340 the community's first candidates that are running in your ward.

00:33:11.800 We are a strong group of people that are ready to make the change you are asking for.

00:33:17.800 And I always encourage people as well.

00:33:19.720 If you really believe in a candidate, whether it's for council, school board, or mayor, give

00:33:25.500 them one day of help.

00:33:26.760 Do something.

00:33:27.500 Put a line sign up.

00:33:28.480 Because it's great to advocate online for what you want.

00:33:31.560 But oftentimes you're just talking to the same hundred people.

00:33:34.580 And it's always good to actually go out and talk to neighbors.

00:33:37.040 Because, you know, if you really believe in something, go and reason with other people

00:33:40.760 for why they should believe in it too.

00:33:42.780 Yeah, lawn signs are here.

00:33:44.220 So thank you for, you know, those of you that already got a lawn sign.

00:33:47.180 And lawn signs are here.

00:33:48.740 Let us know if you want one and the team will come out and deliver it.

00:33:51.760 Absolutely.

00:33:52.320 Well, thanks for coming on the show, Sanya.

00:33:53.700 Good luck out there.

00:33:54.740 Thank you.

00:33:55.360 Thank you.

00:33:55.420 Thank you.

The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - August 07, 2025

Can Calgary Conservatives take back City Hall？ (ft. Sonya Sharp)

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